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Four Types of Teeth and How They Function

Your teeth play very important role in every day activities. They Are needed to eat, speak and stay healthy.

First off, there are two stages and sense of human teeth. The first our primary, or baby, teeth and the second our permanent, or adult, teeth. These teeth develop in different stages and although have different timing each set of these teeth are similar.

There are four different types of teeth with very important roles to perform in your mouth. There are incisors, canines, premolars and molars. You can also add in third molars which are known as wisdom teeth.

Incisors are known as the eight teeth in the front of your mouth. There are four on top and four on the bottom. These teeth are usually the first to irrupt as a child and then again between the ages of six and eight when the permanent teeth are coming in.

Canines are the sharp teeth after the incisors. These teeth are usually used for ripping and tearing of food. These are the next teeth that erupt in childhood. These teeth are also known as “fangs”.

The premolars, also known as by customs, are used for chewing and grinding food. Adults typically have four premolars on each side of their mouth, two on the top and two on the bottom. The first premolars typically appear around age 10 with the second premolars arriving about a year later. These will take the place of the first and second primary molar after they fall out as children.

The molars are also used for chewing and grinding of food. Between ages 12 and 28 months, a child will get two molars. After they fall out and permanent teeth start to erupt, those first two molars are replaced by permanent premolars. In addition to that two more brand new molars will irrupt between ages 6 and 11. This will complete the permanent, adult smile.

There are typically a set of third molars, also known as wisdom teeth, that could be erupted between ages 18 to 20. On occasion this will happen sooner in life and majority of people will have them removed due to possible crowding and pain. There are also cases where they do not fully erupt and they become impacted which also leads to removal.

You may get two sets of teeth but you want to make sure you care for both….. the permanent set are the last ones you will get.